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Feeling the sting - If bees continue to disappear, US keepers may decide to shut down

Fri, 05/07/2010 - 16:45 — Henk Tennekes

Managed bee colony deaths in the U.S. rose to about 34 percent this year, up from 29 percent last year, according to the ARS, the chief scientific research agency for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The number of managed honey bee colonies has shrunk from about 5 million in the 1940s to about 2.5 million today."If the rate of these losses continues, commercial beekeeping may not be economically viable," said Kim Kaplan, a spokeswoman for the ARS. "If they are not making a profit, they're not going to stay in the business."